Social marketing : the ultimate tool of the future?

Yelp just announced yesterday that they reached 32 million (!) unique users in May, out of which 1.4 million people were using its iPhone application. The stunning thing though is that the latter group accounted for 27% of all searched - which if you think about is natural: you are on the move, and look for trustworthy places real time.

On top of that, over half a million calls were made directly from the iPhone application to local businesses, which shows that this type of interactive tool can be very well used to generate direct leads and CPA type of campaignes.

In order to enhance the user experience and fuel the buzz around Yelp even more, Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, says that they will soon launch a functionality on the iPhone app, which makes it possible that recurring customers earn "badges" if they go to their favorite place or eat their favorite food at different places. Actually the use and interpretation of badges are left to the users, Stoppelman says, so its a true social marketing tool, focusing on the content and user experience instead of sheer promotion.